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The Navy estimates its plan to acquire a 22-ship DDG-51 Flight III fleet of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers will cost $56 billion -- $50.2 billion for the ships and $5.8 billion for the new radar -- a previously unreported total sticker price for a project the service is seeking permission from Congress to initiate in fiscal year 2016.

As Congress continues to blast the Defense Department's anemic number of trained Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Operation Inherent Resolve Commander Brig. Gen. Kevin Killea told reporters July 31 that the Pentagon's train-and-assist efforts with Iraq Sunni tribes have been more successful.

The Air Force is actively following the Federal Aviation Administration-led investigation of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch failure, a process that will feed its own review of the launch vehicle's reliability.

3-D printing and adaptive software have the potential to dramatically change defense technology -- but the changes likely won't arrive immediately, an industry panel said Friday at the Brookings Institution.

Defense Budget Alert

All the military services have responded to a call from the Pentagon comptroller's office seeking lists of acquisition programs that would be adversely affected should Congress remain mired in budgetary gridlock and pass only a stopgap spending measure, according to Cmdr. Bill Urban, a Defense Department spokesman.

Thursday's planned senior leadership conference run by Defense Secretary Ash Carter will be aimed at getting the Pentagon's arms around budgetary challenges ahead in fiscal year 2017, specifically with regard to new investments in innovative technologies, according to Frank Kendall, the Defense Department's acquisition chief.

Conference committee debate on the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act is scheduled to slip into September, though a compromise has emerged between House and Senate negotiators on the future of acquisition reform, according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Homeland Defense Watch

The Pentagon aims to complete a joint capability technology demonstration by fiscal year 2017 for a program that seeks to improve operations of the National Capital Region's integrated air defense system and guard against air threats, Defense Department acquisition chief Frank Kendall told lawmakers in a "for official use only" report.

The U.S. government may invoke special national-security authorities to ensure enough personal protective equipment can be purchased to deal with a domestic Ebola crisis, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency official.

U.S. Northern Command and the federal government have yet to hammer out the details of who is authorized to deal with some types of malware in the event of a cyber attack on the United States, according to NORTHCOM's commander.

C4ISR Watch

Following a somewhat hasty push to assemble a dedicated force of Army cyber soldiers, service officials now are trying to put the management of that talent on a more sustainable and affordable footing.

The Army this month will hold meetings with companies vying to win a contract for the Small Airborne Networking Radio, one of the service's two airborne Joint Tactical Radio System radios that may eventually outfit newer model attack helicopters.